Vitor Oliveira

Along Angola's Atlantic coast, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Luanda, a long arc of sand curves beneath cliffs and rocky headlands. At the southern end of the bay, a wave wraps around the point and runs for what feels like forever. Welcome to dreamy Cabo Ledo, home to Praia dos Surfistas (or Surfers' Beach), a place that has become the center of Angolan surfing and one of the most remarkable left-hand point breaks in Africa, alongside Namibia's very own Skeleton Bay . For decades, surfers have crossed continents searching for long, uncrowded waves. Many eventually hear the same name: Cabo Ledo. The appeal, you know, is easy to understand. The wave is consistent, forgiving in many conditions, and capable of producing rides that stretch hundreds of yards down the bay. Yet it remains connected to a fishing village, a beach camping culture, and a coastline that still feels far removed from the crowds that dominate many famous surf destinations. How surfing arr...

A few miles north of downtown Asheville, heavy machinery now sits in the middle of the French Broad River. Concrete forms rise from exposed bedrock. Circular walls of rock and steel push the river aside. Locals stop on bridges to stare at what looks, at first glance, like a strange industrial accident. It is actually one of the most ambitious river surfing projects ever attempted on the East Coast of the United States. The feature is called Taylor's Wave, a human-made standing wave under construction in Woodfin that is expected to draw kayakers, river surfers, boogie boarders, and freestyle paddlers from across the country. The project has been in development for nearly a decade. Engineers have modeled it in a Prague hydraulics laboratory. Environmental consultants studied fish migration routes and flood elevations. Local officials rebuilt park plans around it. The wave itself is being shaped directly into one of the oldest rivers on Earth. The goal is simple enough to expl...

Have you ever witnessed waves being created? Probably not, right? But there are simple ways to simulate ocean wave generation at home or outdoors. Here are a few methods that will impress children and adults alike. Maybe you already know that most of the water waves we see in large bodies like oceans, seas, and lakes are caused by wind or by a mechanical displacement of water generated, for instance, by a landslide or paddles installed in a wave pool. But have you ever seen the birth of a wave in a small space or controlled environment? There are many ways to explain the creation of a wave in a lab-type context to kids and to adults who have never quite understood how this magical phenomenon brings walls of water to the coastline. SurferToday.com imagined a few experiments you could set up at home or in a garden. Shall we produce a few waves? 1. Jump rope or garden hose: the classic wave demonstration A jump rope of garden hose stretched across a yard can stand in for a cross-s...

Many surfers know iconic breaks by the shape of their waves, even without the need to see the surrounding scenery. However, fewer realize some of these places are connected to America's National Marine Sanctuary System, protected ocean places where recreation, wildlife, heritage, and coastal economies meet. Surfers do not have an abstract idea of what the ocean is. Instead, they just set up a daily relationship with it that is obviously fundamentally shaped by wind, weather, tides, swell, water quality, wildlife, access, and respect for place. So it's good to know that the same waters that produce unforgettable rides also support marine life, coastal communities, tourism, research, education, and maritime heritage. That connection is part of the story behind the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) annual "Get Into Your Sanctuary" campaign and photo contest, which encourages people to discover, experience, and care for national marine sanc...

The name sounds playful, but the reality is not. There is actually a strange violence in a sneaker wave. It appears without warning, often during calm weather, and it has become one of the deadliest beach hazards on the US West Coast. And it all starts with a beach or a surf break that looks harmless. Then a single wave races far beyond the reach of the others, and suddenly the shoreline is underwater. The ocean phenomenon, also known as a sleeper wave or king wave, can make a beachgoer fall and a surfer get pounded when they weren't expecting it. But what exactly is this out-of-the-blue ripple? Why and where does it come from? A wave that does not behave like the others A sneaker wave is a much larger wave that surges unexpectedly higher onto the beach than the waves before it. Unlike a normal set wave that breaks in a predictable rhythm, a sneaker wave can arrive after 10 or even 20 minutes of relatively small surf. That lull tricks people into stepping closer to the wat...

The road into Torquay, Australia, does not feel like the beginning of a global business story. Even today, the town carries the rhythm of a beach community shaped more by tides than schedules. The Southern Ocean rolls in cold and heavy. Wind scrapes across the cliffs. The beaches along Victoria's Surf Coast seem carved out of stone and weather. That landscape shaped Rip Curl long before the company existed. The coastline southwest of Melbourne has always carried a certain mythology. Nineteenth-century sailors feared the waters near Cape Otway so deeply that navigating the western entrance to Bass Strait became known as "threading the eye of the needle." Nearly 700 shipwrecks littered the coast between Port Fairy and Cape Otway. In 1845, the wreck of the Cataraqui killed almost 400 people and helped lead to the construction of the Cape Otway lighthouse, still the oldest operating lighthouse in Australia. The ocean was dangerous, unpredictable, and impossible to ign...